Thank you all for your reactions about the station, I red them all and have three things on my mind.
Even the station is out very soon, vapman is and stays our main product. Vapman with the station is not better than vapman with the lighter!! Vapman and the lighter is in fact a winning team and hard to beat. I consider vapman as an invention and the station as a technological development, these are two different pair of shoes. The station uses existing technologies where vapman is inovation, inspiration and magic. Vapman is my pride and joy, the station just an alternative to the lighter, nothing more and nothing less. Don't get me wrong, I like the station and I did everything possible to make it good but it is just a tool for vapman. Personally, I am using the lighter far more often than the station, vapman and lighter is just one sexy combination.
I can understand that some of you got a bit upset about the price, especially because I was announcing a much lower price before. This was not very clever of me and it reveals my bad business skills and I want to apologize for this. The lower price was my own wish, I even wanted it to be below $100 when I started the series, which is completely unrealistic in any way I look at it now. The station is not a business plan to make some extra money, it is much more fulfilling a wish a lot of people brought up to me since the story with the soldering iron. Developing such a device, making some prototypes and a first small series is actually a big risk for a small company, not knowing if the investments ever pay off and if the product itself is going to be a success. This is the main reason I was always reluctant to do it in the first place.
To all those clients buying a station now, I can assure that the price will not drop on the next series, the $250 is the realistic price for the station, below that it is just not possible to do for us and we would have to drop this project. When holding this unit in your hands, you will agree that it is not over priced at all. It is not a plastic injection moulded casing with some cheap electronics, it is made of very solid and machined components held together with stainless steel screws and it has sophisticated electronics. The dial button is not just a plastic button glued on the stem, for instance, this button has a solid brass core with a small screw for holding it on the stem, just a small detail to point out the quality.
I like the idea of some members trying to make their own tower of power, I really do!
This is the best thing that can happen to vapman, I am truly and honestly looking forward to see the first attempts of you guys. I see this in a positive way as some sort of promotion making vapman more popular. You will have success with a soldering iron, I am telling you, don't let loose till you have it! Each one his own tower of power! I want to see you making some nice clouds with your own station, this is going to be fun.
Vapman
